ASUS’ engineers previously stated that development of the Google Nexus 7 tablet was “like torture.” This was mainly for the fast 4-month turnaround time. A new report in Forbes gives a closer look at what it took to bring this 7-inch tablet to life.
Benjamin Yeh, head of ASUS UK, stated they met Google execs in January at CES 2012. Yeh noted that “Our top executives met Google’s top executives at CES to talk about opportunities and how they saw the future market. That’s when we came up with the idea of the Google Nexus 7 by Asus. That was in January, and mass production started in May. So, that was four months. For a mass-market device, from concept to mass production, we’re talking about six to twelve months. Six months is very tight…”
To make the Nexus 7 a reality Google instructed ASUS to make the hardware of the tablet effectively represent the new Jelly Bean OS, plus it had to be “fast, cheap and good.” The base price for the Nexus 7 is $209 CDN and comes with a 7-inch display, and a quad-core Tegra 3 processor.
Yeh continued and stated “The easiest, cheapest and quickest way to design, is start with the CPU, then the north bridge and the south bridge, and then place the other components… The device had to be thin and light, with a weight under 340 grams. So to get that lightness, normally the CPU would be small [low-powered]. But to get media playback, and particularly high definition media, the processor has to be powerful. The strong CPU in a very small space is difficult. And also the screen: you want it to be very responsive and also to have multitouch.”
While Google is reportedly pleased with the sales numbers, both the 8GB and 16GB have at times been sold out online, some consumers have been experiencing various display issues, including the screen flickering and dead pixels.
Source: Forbes
Via: PhoneArena
